http://ncdd.org/10940 Read more »

It's just coincidence, but I'm published twice today by the Boston Globe, which for 14 years was my employer. Read more »

Please forgive the grubby appearance. Sometimes, I "come as I am" to Toastmasters, but I've decided not to do that any longer. But this time, grubby. Still, I wanted to share the sentiment.

Scant blogging lately as I give attention to other things. It's just temporary.

But in the meantime, here's my latest Globe story on food from a sustainability perspective, or is it sustainability from a food perspective?

Yes, the Globe story is one of the "other things" I've been giving my attention to.

Here's my latest story for the Boston Globe food section exploring corners of the sustainable food movement. Today's installment is about the farmers and fishers who sell protein via the community-supported model, as well as the customers who support them.

Welcome to another installment of 10 Words or Less, in which I ask brief questions, and request brief answers, of interesting people. Today’s contestant is a chef and food-justice activist who circulates an exhaustive compendium of food-related news. Remember: the 10-words thing is a goal, not a rule, so please, no counting. And besides, let’s see you do it. Read more »

If someone wanted to make a podcast just for me, the subject matter would adress the interplay of obesity and sustainability. Well, of course they didn't record it just for me, but here it is, from the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale.

Actually, they did two; here's the other one.  Read more »

Unquestionably, I am a biomimicry groupie, and have referenced it many times. I venerate Janine Benyus and Dayna Baumeister, its leaders, and consider the movement to be one of the best combinations of simple and clever that I've ever encountered. Read more »

And finally, friends, we come to the last excerpt I'm taking from Barbara Kingsolver's 2007 book, "Animal Vegetable Miracle," in which she places her family's efforts for the year within the context of global survival. Though her views grew from different roots than mine, I also came to my food advocacy from sustainability. I just didn't realize that my interest in sustainability and my interest in legitimizing food addiction came from spurs on the same line. Read more »

Another concluding excerpt from my reading of "Animal Vegetable Miracle," Barbara Kingsolver's 2007 book in which she and her family became locavores for a year.

The biggest shock of our year came when we added up the tab. We'd fed ourselves, organically and pretty splendidly we thought, on about 50 cents per family member per meal — probably less that I spent in the years when I qualified for food stamps. ... Our main off-farm purchases for the year were organic grain for animal feed, and the 300 pounds of flour required for our daily bread. To put this in perspective, a good wheat field yields about 1,600 pounds of flour per acre. In total, for our grain and flour, pastured meats and goods from the farmer's market, and our own produce, our family's food footprint for the year was probably about one acre.<br/>By contrast, current nutritional consumption in the U.S. requires an average of 1.2 culitvated acres for every citizen — 4.8 acres for a family of four. (Among other things, it takes space to grow corn syrup for that hypothetiical family's 219 gallonghs of soda.) These estimates become more meaningful when placed next to another proediction: in 2050, the amount of U.S. farmland available per citizen will be on 0.6 acres. By the numbers, the hypothetical family has change in the cards. [Page 343]

The first comment I could add is that the value of her family's labor was left out of the calculation! But I can relate: I often rave about my cooperative community garden and one of the first measures I use is how much produce we get for the $75 entry fee. We surely get more than $75 worth, but then again, we are in the garden at least twice a week, and we have website and educational commitments as well.

Sure we pay only $75 out of pocket, but we pay in additional ways as well. For the record, the recompense I get from this involvement also goes way beyond the food: knowledge, shared by my fellow gardeners who know what they're doing; the community of those who come to garden; the community of the public park and of the town where the garden is located; the legacy for my son, now 2, to learn that food comes from the ground, not from cellophane wrap. Read more »